Benefits of mobile money

MANILA, Philippines - PLDT and Smart president and chief executive officer Napoleon L. Nazareno spoke before a global audience at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last month, explaining the role of mobile money in recovery efforts in natural disasters. He cited the initiatives of Smart to make mobile money more pervasive and beneficial to more Filipinos, especially in times of disasters. One of the early recovery activities that Smart helped facilitate was the payout to the emergency cash-for-work beneficiaries of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) last December in Tacloban City. ‘Like other cash-for-work programs, the beneficiaries are paid to sweep streets, clear debris and clean up the drainage. What was different was the innovative way it was being implemented with the help of state-owned Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) and Smart,’ said Nazareno. UNDP has tapped the LBP and Smart’s wholly-owned financial services unit, Smart e-Money Inc. (SMI) for the cash transfer rollout using the Smart Money platform.